The two highwaymen from earlier were hiding in the foliage on the side of the rode. One of them parted the bushes with a rustle and poked his head through.
"Look, other highwayman, there's one of Ronikin Hood's men!" he whispered.
"Sigh," sighed the cherry man, leaning on his longbow sadly. "Herwhiney... she's so beautiful... she is the perfect woman... oh, if only she could love me!"
"Herwhiney?" whispered the highwayman's companion, also thrusting his face out. "The world's greatest witch with a b?"
"Who's there?" cried Ronnikin's man.
The highwaymen drew back into the bush.
"Hurry!" whispered the first one to his companion. "Pretend to be birds!"
The highwaymen made tweeting sounds. Ronnikin's man sloped his shoulders and relaxed.
"Thank goodness. It's just some men hiding in the bushes pretending to be birds. I was afraid of highwaymen. Well, I must go back to the tower and guard Herwhiney!"
Once he was gone, the senior highwayman exploded out of the bush, bugged-eyed and clenching and unclenching his fists.
"Herwhiney! The King's whore! She's a light faction or a dark faction, I'm pretty sure!"
"Yeah!" said his buddy. "And I'm a Light Faction!"
"And I'm a Dark Faction, so we much team up to kill her."
"Good idea," was the reply. "But we'll need a few thousand more men."
"Thankfully we already had ten thousand other men with us in the bush. Let's go to the tower."
Meanwhile, Herwhiney was crying at Ronnikin's feet in the highest room of the tower.
"Please, let me self-insert myself in every scene above every character," she cried brokenly, witch mascara running down her face. "I'm too epic and goddess-like for this treatment. My sordid smut stories have two one-star reviews on Amazon. I am famous."
"No can do," said Ronnikin Hood, buffing his nails against his tunic. He held them out and examined them in the torchlight idly. He turned. "You're staying right here. So long!"
Suddenly there was deafening explosion. The room shook and loose stones fell from the ceiling.
"What was that?" cried Ronnikin.
Herwhiney ran to the window. She trembled and her knees knocked together.
Why?
Because there was an army of pro/anti-Catholic/Protestant mercenaries attempting to breach the tower.
HERWHINEY WAS DECEIVED AND IMPORTANT.